DOWN the slopes of a dusty village in western Kenya, a team of research scientists labours day and night in search of a malaria vaccine.

The Kenya Medical Research Institute [KEMRI] and The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] have over the years committed huge chunks of their budgetary allocations to promoting public health in East Africa through research, training, control and prevention and programmes in diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and infectious  diseases like influenza and diarrhoea.

The research and public health collaboration between the KEMRI and CDC Kenya has seen the development of a health and demographic surveillance system that monitors health and demographic features among 204,000 people every four months.

The clinical trials of RTS,S  took off on July 9 in three study sites. By August, about 250 participants had been enrolled for the study at the Kombewa clinical trial research centre in Nyanza Province.

According to the scientists, minimal side effects have been noticed among those who have been vaccinated. A few participants experience swellings and some pain, which the researchers describe as a normal occurrence in such studies.

According to Dr. Walter Otieno, a principal investigator at the center which covers an area of 361 square kilometers, follow-up rate stand at 99 percent to 100 percent.We check f

Follow-up rates stand at 99 percent to 100 percent. “We check for adverse side effects during follow-ups. We try to establish if they experience severe fever, redness or severe swellings,’’ says Dr Otieno.or adverse side effects during follow-ups. We try to establish if they experience severe fever, redness or severe swellings.

The parent would-be participants are fully informed of every aspect of the study so they can make decisions from an informed position and their participation is voluntary. Participants are also free to leave at any time without repercussions.

As in other areas where the studies have been done, residents of this village celebrate the news of a breakthrough that holds out the hope of a solution to a problem that has bedeviled their lives.

When the trials were launched in her village, 35-year-old Judith Akoth could not wait to have her child enrolled. She had lost her first born son at the age of four to malaria. She was among the first to volunteer their sons and daughters to the study.

The Kombewa study site is located in an area where malaria is endemic. According to the provincial director of public health, Dr Simon Kioko, 40 percent of children below five here have malaria parasites in their blood.

Besides causing acute illness, malaria infections have resulted in missed school and work days. The disease has also lowered productivity among the farming groups in the region, leading to food insufficiency.

RTS’S was developed and manufactured by GSK Biological of Belgium and PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative, which also sponsors KEMRI/CDC, KEMRI/Wellcome Trust in Kilifi, and KEMRI/Walter Reed Programmes in Kombewa and KEMRI/CDC in Siaya.

A total of 16,000 children will be enrolled in the 11 study sites in the seven participating African countries.In Kenya , KEMRI/CDC will enroll about 1,800 children at its Siaya site while at Kombewa centre KEMRI/Walter Reed programme will enroll 1,600 children.

Once confirmed to reduce malaria cases in this last phase and licensed, it could be made available as early as 2012 for infants in the age bracket of five to seven  months and as early as 2015 for younger infants as part of child vaccination series.

The researchers hope that if licensed and subsequently approved, the vaccine would be an important addition to the current tools available to fight malaria  such as insecticide-treated nets, intermittent preventive treatment of malaria in pregnancy and indoor residual spraying to prevent malaria.